


The past has found the future

by tocourtdisaster



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-14
Updated: 2010-04-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:39:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocourtdisaster/pseuds/tocourtdisaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Jim's not exactly sure when Bones succeeds in getting Jocelyn to agree to let Joanna come to San Francisco, just that there's a young girl who looks an awful lot like Bones sitting on the floor in front of the couch when Jim lets himself into Bones's apartment after his sixth consecutive, and final, day of debriefings.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The past has found the future

**Author's Note:**

> So, one night about a month ago, I'm lying in bed, almost asleep, when this image pops into my head of Karl Urban's McCoy braiding a little girl's hair. Several different thoughts battle for dominance in my brain, including 'I think my ovaries might be exploding' and 'I bet Jim Kirk would love to watch Bones dote on Joanna' and 'I need to fic the shit outta that.' And thus was born this fluffy piece of gen.
> 
> The title of this story comes from a line in "When She's Gone" by Spock's Beard and Bones's goodnight to Joanna is borrowed from [Steven Spielberg's Taken](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289830/), which I highly recommend you stick in your Netflix queue if you haven't already seen it.

The first time James Kirk meets Joanna McCoy, he’s just finished rehashing his first year as captain of _Enterprise_ with the admiralty. He’d been pissed at first when his captaincy came with a probationary period, but looking back on it now, he can see how he wasn’t quite ready for his stripes then, how the admiralty had only given him the flagship because to do otherwise was to risk a public backlash from which they wouldn’t have been able to quickly recover. He’s finally settling into his captaincy, though, all the routines and the responsibility, and he can’t imagine what he’d do if _Enterprise_ is taken away from him now.

The crew scatter practically the minute they hit Earth orbit, headed to various parts of the galaxy for the six weeks _Enterprise_ will be in dry dock undergoing systems upgrades. Spock and Uhura get on the first transport to the new Vulcan homeworld, Chekov drags Sulu to Mother Russia, and Scotty has himself beamed directly to his sister’s house just outside of Aberdeen. Bones, Jim knows, is staying in San Francisco, picking up shifts at Medical in the interim, while he and his lawyer fight with Jocelyn and her lawyers about visitation rights.

Jim’s not exactly sure when Bones succeeds in getting Jocelyn to agree to let Joanna come to San Francisco, just that there’s a young girl who looks an awful lot like Bones sitting on the floor in front of the couch when Jim lets himself into Bones’s apartment after his sixth consecutive, and final, day of debriefings.

He’s honestly not surprised to see her there; he’d known that Bones would out-stubborn Jocelyn eventually. What’s surprising about the whole situation is this: Bones, on the couch behind Joanna, quickly working his daughter’s hair into two French braids.

Joanna turns when she hears the door and Bones places a hand on the top of her head, turning her to face forward again. “Unless you want a crooked braid, you’d better sit still, missy,” he tells her, not even bothering to glance at Jim before bending back to his task. “I’m almost done.”

Jim’s almost tempted to make some sort of crack questioning Bones’s manhood, but he doesn’t have the heart to ruin this moment between father and daughter. Instead, he crosses the room and folds himself into a cross-legged position on the floor in front of Joanna and, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Bones, he holds his hand out and says, “Hey, I’m Jim.”

Joanna takes his hand and Jim is pleased to note that she’s got the beginnings of a good, firm handshake going. “I’m Joanna, but I’m pretty sure you knew that already.”

Jim smiles at her sass. She’s definitely got the McCoy attitude; he likes her already. “That I did, but it is still a pleasure to meet you, Miss Joanna.”

Bones reaches a hand over Joanna’s left shoulder and she presses an elastic into his waiting palm. With a few deft twists of his wrist, Bones has the brain tied off. He pats it once, says “All done,” and Joanna is up off the floor in a flash, running her fingers over her pigtails.

“Thanks, Daddy!” Jim’s not sure he’s ever seen anyone smile so brightly, especially not for something so simple, but Joanna’s looking at her father like he lit the stars in the sky just for her.

“Not a problem, sweetheart.” Jim _knows_ he’s never seen Bones smile like this before, all calm and content and honestly _happy_ and Jim likes how it makes Bones look so much younger than the grouchy doctor facade he usually projects. He looks good.

“What are you smirking at, you reprobate?” Bones asks, turning his attention back to Jim with an exaggerated scowl. “They kick you outta Starfleet yet?”

“I get called up for an inquiry once, _once_, and now he thinks every time I get a call from Earth that I’m getting the boot. It’s just not fair,” Jim tells Joanna, who laughs and plops on the couch next to her father. He turns back to Bones. “I’m actually finished with debriefings, so I came to see if you wanted to go out and celebrate with me.”

“Still Captain?” There’s just the barest hint of worry hiding underneath the sarcasm in Bones’s voice. Even a year ago, Jim not sure he would have been able to recognize it. Now, Bones may as well be pacing and wringing his hands. It’s nice, both the worry itself and that Jim is able to recognize it for what it is.

“Still Captain,” he confirms, smiling when Bones’s shoulders drop just the slightest little bit in relief. “So, what do you say? Celebratory dinner, maybe dessert?” He has a feeling the pleading look he’s shooting Bones might be more effective if he wasn’t still sitting on the floor, but there’s not much he can do about it at this point. “Joanna? Come on, you know you want to.”

“Only if I can have a banana split,” Joanna says as much to her father as to Jim.

“That’s up to your dad, kiddo,” Jim tells her, shrugging slightly, watching Joanna turn pathetic little puppy eyes on Bones. And it’s no wonder Bones always caves when Chekov gives him puppy eyes; Joanna’s version looks alarmingly like Chekov’s.

Bone sighs, glancing from Joanna to Jim and back again. “As long as you eat something at least slightly healthy for dinner,” he says, letting out a startled _oomph_ when Joanna launches herself at him, hugging him tightly.

Jim’s laughter at his friend is cut short when Joanna throws herself at him. If he’d seen it coming, he could have braced himself, but he didn’t see it coming and now he’s flat on his back on the floor of Bones’s living room with Bones’s daughter sitting on his chest. “Can’t breathe,” he manages to wheeze out, and Bones gets to his feet and plucks Joanna off of Jim’s chest.

“I’m sorry!” Joanna exclaims, still in mid-air, her feet dangling limply. As soon as Bones sets her down, she falls to her knees next to Jim, who’s pushed himself into an upright position, and throws her arms around his neck. “I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

“I’m fine,” Jim assures her, awkwardly patting her on the back. He looks up at Bones, who just looks amused at the whole situation. “I swear. Now, how about we go do that celebrating thing we discussed?”

  


\------

Dinner is good and entertaining, with Joanna asking a million and one questions about life on _Enterprise_ and the other officers and with Jim doing his best impressions of said officers and with Bones pretending not to notice Joanna slipping her green beans underneath her napkin, and it’s fairly late when they finally manage to find an old-fashioned ice cream parlor to get Joanna her banana split.

By the time they leave the ice cream parlor to head back to Bones’s apartment, Joanna’s yawning almost constantly, her eyes taking longer and longer to open between blinks. Bones notices, of course, and stops Joanna with a hand on her shoulder before crouching in front of her, only standing after she’s wrapped her arms around his neck and his hands are braced under her knees.

“Thanks, Daddy,” she mumbles, dropping her head to Bones’s shoulder, already more than half asleep. Bones doesn’t answer, just shifts a bit until he’s got Joanna situated comfortably.

Jim watches them out of the corner of his eye as they continue their walk in silence. Joanna’s arms are loose around Bones’s shoulders and she lets out a little huffing snore with each breath. Bones’s head is tilted towards Joanna, his lips quirked up just the tiniest bit in one of the most content smiles Jim’s ever seen on his friend’s face.

“You don’t have to walk back with us, you know,” Bones says after a few minutes of silence. “It’s still early yet. You could still get to that celebrating you were going on about earlier.”

Jim’s shaking his head before Bones even finishes speaking. “Booze at your place is free, Bones. Why would I want to go out and pay to get drunk when I have free booze waiting for me?”

Bones laughs quietly. “It’s not like you’d have to pay for your drinks if you went out, genius,” he says, and Jim can’t tell if Bones sounds more amused or annoyed. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re rather famous. Put that with your pretty little face and you’ll never have to pay for a drink again.”

“You think I’m pretty, Bones?” Jim asks, fluttering his eyelashes and pressing himself up against Bones’s side, wrapping his arm around both Bones and Joanna, his palm against Joanna’s ribcage and the tips of his fingers trailing against Bones’s back.

“The prettiest captain I ever did see,” Bones says and Jim lets out a bark of laughter that he quickly stifles when Joanna stirs and mutters something about monkeys or mangoes, Jim’s not sure which, and he’s not sure he wants to know.

“Bones, I think your daughter might be crazy,” he says, moving away from Bones slightly so it’s a bit easier to walk, but keeping his hand in place.

“She’s a smart kid with a hyperkinetic brain,” Bones replies, and Jim can almost hear Bones rolling his eyes at him. “Not crazy.”

“I was a smart kid with a hyperkinetic brain, Bones,” Jim argues, “and you call me a ‘damn crazy fool’ at least four times a week.”

“Because you _are_ a damn crazy fool,” Bones says with an air of finality in his voice. “The two aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.”

When they reach Bones’s building, Jim drops his hand and keys them through the main entrance. “I never did ask how you figured out my passcode,” Bones say as they wait for the lift at the end of the hall.

“Like it was hard?” Jim follows Bones onto the lift, hits the button for the twelfth floor. “It’s Joanna’s birthday followed by the day you got your medical license, the same as it’s always been.”

“I can’t remember; did I tell you that or did you hack it way back when?” Bones asks.

“I’m fairly certain you told me, but not before I’d already hacked it,” Jim answers as they step out of the lift. “You know me. I’ve never been able to turn down a challenge.” He taps the code into the keypad next to Bones’s door, follows the other man into the apartment.

Bones stops in the middle of the open area between the kitchen and living room, turning his head to look at Jim. “I think I’m gonna need your help here, Jim.”

Joanna barely rouses when Jim rests his hand against her back again and says, “Joanna, you need to let go of your dad, okay?” but she does move her arms from Bones’s neck to Jim’s with a minimum amount of coaxing. Jim grunts a little when he’s finally supporting all of her weight; Joanna might be on the short side for her age, but she’s _heavy_. “God, Bones, how did you manage to carry her all the way back here without your back hating you?”

“Who says it doesn’t?” Bones says, taking a minute to stretch; Jim winces at the loud cracks. When he’s done stretching, Bones leads the way down the hall and through the last door on the right, Jim following with Joanna. There’s a bed made up with yellow sheets and a blue quilt against the far wall underneath the window, a small nightstand on one side, and a dresser, its top covered in colorful hair clips and a small vase of daisies, against the adjacent wall, across from a door that most likely leads to the closet.

Bones pulls down the sheets and helps support Joanna’s head as Jim leans forward and sets her down on her bed. Joanna barely stirs, mumbles, “Lemurs’re my fav’rite,” before settling down again.

Jim glances at Bones and says, “Crazy,” before stepping out of the way. He watches Bones help his daughter out of her shoes before pulling the blankets up over her body and sitting on the edge of the bed and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Love you, baby, every day and twice on Sundays,” Bones quietly tells his sleeping daughter and Jim suddenly feels like a voyeur; this isn’t for his eyes or ears, but he can’t seem to make himself look away. This is Bones as Jim has never seen him before, as he might never see him again, and Jim’s almost ashamed to admit that he’s not above taking advantage of this situation to get his fill of gentle Bones.

Bones kisses Joanna once more before rising; by the time he’s facing Jim again, Jim’s managed to tear his eyes away and is looking out the window towards the distant towers of the Vulcan embassy.

“C’mon,” Bones says and Jim lets himself be propelled out of the room by a hand on his arm. Bones closes the bedroom door gently, the latch letting out a quiet _snick_. Jim heads for the couch while Bones makes a detour in the kitchen for bourbon and glasses, bringing the bottle with him. Bones passes him a glass and Jim holds it up to the light.

“Here’s to a decently successful first year,” Jim says and clinks his glass against Bones’s before bringing it to his lips.

“Here’s to the next year being a little less eventful than the last,” Bones counters, taking a sip from his own glass.

Jim smiles, says, “I’ll drink to that,” and proceeds to do just that.

  


\------

“Are we just gonna leave him there all day?”

“Just a little while longer. He’s been under a lot of stress lately; he could definitely use the sleep.”

“’Cause you don’t?”

“Different kinds of stress, baby. Besides, I got plenty of rest before you got here and I’ll have plenty of time to sleep after you go back home to your mom. I’m not missing any time with you if I can help it.”

“I love you, too, Daddy.”

It takes a minute, but Jim eventually realizes that those two voices are Bones and Joanna, and they’re talking about him. He really should’ve laid off the bourbon sooner than he did last night; his mouth is drier than a desert and he’s fairly certain there’s a Tellarite percussion group performing inside his skull. With a groan, he shifts around a bit and promptly falls off the couch he was sleeping on.

“Ow.”

“Are you okay?” Joanna appears in Jim’s field of vision, upside down, and Jim sighs in relief as her head blocks the light that was shining into his eyes. “Jim? Did you die?”

“He’s not dead,” Bones chimes in from above Joanna, also upside down.

“Your floor is really hard, Bones,” Jim says because he feels like he should contribute something to this conversation, though that doesn’t make the statement any less true.

“Floors generally are, Jim,” Bones replies, nudging Joanna out of the way and holding a hand out to Jim. “C’mon, up you get.”

The whole world starts spinning as soon as Jim’s upright and doesn’t stop until he’s sitting on the couch, holding himself as still as he can. He hardly even flinches when Bones presses a hypospray to his neck. After a minute, the world seems to settle as Jim’s headache recedes. His mouth, however, is still as dry as the Sahara.

“Daddy and I were just starting brunch when you fell off the couch,” Joanna says, sitting on the cushion next to Jim and bumping her shoulder against his arm. “Do you like waffles?”

“Who doesn’t like waffles?” is Jim’s reply and that gets him a sunny smile from Joanna and a smaller, though no less happy, smile from Bones.

Joanna practically leaps up from the couch, grabbing Jim’s hand and dragging him behind her towards the kitchen, chattering a mile a minute about how her dad’s waffles are the best _ever_, has Jim ever had them, he’ll never want to eat anyone else’s waffles ever again, and could he get the flour down from the pantry, please, because she can’t reach?

Jim meets Bones’s eyes over Joanna’s head, trying to ask with nothing more than head tilts and eyebrow raises if Joanna’s always this full of energy in the morning. Bones just shrugs, still smiling, and hands Jim a glass of orange juice.

  


\------

Turns out, Bones really _does_ make the best waffles ever.


End file.
